‘Download-to-Burn’ Coming in ‘07?

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‘Download-to-Burn’ Coming in ‘07?

The head of Time Warner has announced that his company plans to offer internet downloads of feature films that customers can then burn to DVD. The service is expected next year.

Richard Parsons, Time Warner CEO, made this announcement in an off-hand fashion at the Rueters Media Summit in New York. "I expect we will be in a download-to-burn mode in 2007 – It will be a part of next year's offerings," he said, according to a Reuters report.

There are no details yet, other than some speculation that the downloads would be offered on the same day that the movies go on sale online and in retail stores.

What do they need to do to make this work? Relax the restrictions that have plagued all download-to-burn video services so far. The movie you download needs to be comparable in quality and offer the same portability as the movie you buy in stores (at the same price or cheaper) if this is going to catch on. Not likely, but not impossible either.